Happy National Running Day!!

So it's National Running Day! I encourage you to celebrate the fact that you have two working legs and go outside for a run today. I don't care if it's a marathon or just a sprint to the end of your driveway. Get outside and rejoice with your legs. And when you do, share a picture with me! It could be you before or after, your shoes, your route, just share it with me :) Also, if you'd like I'd love to hear any statistics about it. Time? Pace? Distance? If you'd prefer not to share your stats, that's okay too. As long as you run somewhere!

In honor of National Running Day I wore a brand new running outfit to work (my boss is very lenient... and she likes me). It's all from Old Navy, and they're having a summer sale with pretty good prices, so stop in if you need some running clothes.

Today's run was a speed workout, and I tested out the interval feature of my Garmin. I was very pleased! I listen to my music low so I can still hear traffic around me, and the beep alerts to start or stop running were nice and loud that I could hear them with my music on. It was pretty easy to set, too, once I figured out how to get into the setup. Silly me, I went to the menu, turned the intervals on, and then it was ready to go, but I didn't know what intervals it was going to have me run!! I went back and forth for about 3 minutes turning the intervals on and off, waiting for it to ask me what kind of intervals I wanted to do. After about the seventh time of this process I scrolled through the menu one extra click. Besides the options to just turn the intervals on or off, there is a 'set' option. As soon as I saw that, it was smooth sailing! It asks whether you want your intervals in time or distance. Then you set the time or distance. Next you choose time or distance for your rests. Pick how long or how far. After that it asks if you'd like a warm up or a cool down. You select yes or no for either and just like that you're all set up with your workout! You have to press the page/menu button again to locate satellites once you're outside but then you're off and running! Really simple and straightforward. Oh, you also choose how many sets of the interval you want to do, too. That part's important :p

Here's a summary of the workout. The elapsed time just shows how long I was messing around with the intervals, because the Garmin was active for it!
My workout was a half mile warmup and then five half mile intervals with about a half mile for a cool down. The total mileage for today was 3 & 1/2. My rests were 2 minutes standing rest between each interval. I really liked how the Garmin let me just stand there and still kept the clock running but didn't count the standing time against me for distance or pace. Each interval was listed as its own split, so I got an accurate reading for how fast I was going during my speed workout. I'm pretty proud of my splits, since I wasn't aiming for anything, just running by how much effort it felt like I was putting out.
Splits were: 9:47 for my warm up, then 7:40, 7:36, 7:48, 7:48, 8:06, and 10:06 for my cool down.
I was pretty consistent, which is awesome! I love consistency! It's probably my favorite word...

Breakfast was Overnight Oats, which are absolutely delicious, so don't judge them on their looks. They aren't attractive looking to some :p You can find the recipe here: http://www.pepperlynn.com/2012/02/overnight-oats-two-ways/
I make a half batch for breakfast because the full recipe is quite a bit. Also I just do the oats, chia seeds, milk, and Greek yogurt overnight. In the morning I add a tablespoon of peanut butter and a diced apple. Yum! Quick, easy, breakfast!

That's about it for today! I look forward to seeing or hearing about your run today! Post it in the comments or go to www.facebook.com/sprintingsocialworker and put it on my page :)
And remember...

Running is FUN! *This message brought to you by kids*

Safe and happy running!